Survivors describe Tuesday’s Taliban attack on a school in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, which left 148 people dead. Witnesses tell how they heard shots after the heavily-armed militants entered the school, opening fire and hurling hand grenades at students and school staff members

Death toll increased

The Pakistani authorities have stated that the death toll from the attack now stands at 148 people. The number of students killed remains at 132. Another 121 students and three staff members were wounded in the assault.

Political rivals agree to draw up anti-terrorism plan

Pakistan political rivals have agreed to come up with a national plan on tackling terrorism, in the wake of the Peshawar attack, Radio Pakistan reports.

The leaders decided to form a Committee under the chairmanship of Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan to prepare a National Plan of Action against terrorism within a week.

The Committee will have one representative each from parliamentary and other political parties. Representatives of the Armed Forces and intelligence agencies will also be part of the Committee.

The National Plan of Action would be presented before the national political leadership in seven days for approval. It will then be placed before the nation by national political and military leadership..

The resolution announced that there will be no discrimination between good and bad Talibans and the war against terror will continue with the national spirit.

The longer-standing complaint against Pakistan is that it picks and chooses between “good” and “bad” Taliban. The TTP—or factions thereof—are defined as bad because it targets the Pakistani state. Those who hold similar ideologies but operate outside Pakistan, in Afghanistan and India, or even target Shias within Pakistan are tolerated.

This partly reflects a hangover from the past, when Islamist groups in Kashmir and the Afghan Taliban were seen as useful instruments for Pakistan’s foreign policy; the use of proxy forces by Pakistan goes back to its independence in 1947. It also reflects the weakness of civilian governments; many radical groups also undertake popular social functions such as health care, education and flood relief, which help to cover up the poor capabilities of the Pakistani state. In addition, there is a logic in Pakistan politicians’ preferring that violence be displaced from Pakistan into Afghanistan, the path recently taken by the “Punjabi Taliban” in September this year.

Pakistan’s ambivalence toward the Afghan Taliban has also stemmed from a lack of belief in the solidity of the Afghan state.

In the attack, in the provincial capital, Lashgar Gah, five suicide bombers raided the city’s branch of the New Kabul Bank. One of the attackers blew himself up at the front entrance to allow the other three in, said Omer Zawaj, the spokesman for the provincial governor.

Once inside, the other attackers fired at security forces, which arrived at the scene and surrounded the building, Zawaj said.

Helmand police spokesman, Fareed Obaid, said three police officers were among those killed.

“There are also 15 people wounded, including six members of the Afghan security forces,” he said, adding that the rest of the insurgents were killed in the gunbattle.

Afghanistan’s war with the insurgents, whose leadership is based in Pakistan, has escalated in recent months, and angered President Ashraf Ghani who has vowed to bring peace to the country.

The election of Ghani as president has led Afghanistan to shift course on the Taliban, according to Gareth Price senior research fellow at the foreign affairs thinktank Chatham House.

While his predecessor, Hamid Karzai, was quick to blame Pakistan for incidents in Afghanistan, Ghani has taken the view that stability in Afghanistan requires cooperation rather than confrontation with Pakistan, and he recently accepted Pakistan’s long-standing offer to help train Afghanistan’s military.

But for Pakistan, meaningful cooperation would require Afghanistan to take action against Pakistan Taliban groups in Afghanistan. And earlier this month Afghan and US troops did exactly that: In one drone, attack nine members of the TTP were killed in Kunar province.

In another sign of changing attitudes, in late November Pakistan took credit for targeting members of the Haqqani Network, a group linked to the Afghan Taliban. While the extent of its attack on the group cannot be verified, in the past the Haqqani Network appeared to have been spared the treatment meted out to the TTP and remained, in the words of U.S. Admiral Mike Mullen, “a veritable arm of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency.”

The attack in Peshawar is tragic and unlikely to be the last. But the region stands on the cusp of a potentially game-changing transformation in which the Afghan and Pakistan governments understand that their interests are best served working together rather than undermining each other.

That the TTP felt the need to launch its most deadly attack at this juncture is likely to reflect its concern about what this could mean.

Pakistan’s powerful army chief General Raheel Sharif who was accompanied by the head of the Pakistan’s main intelligence agency, the ISI, is set to meet Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and ISAF commander General John Campbell, according to a brief statement by the military.

Some of the militants who attacked the army-run school in Peshawar Tuesday spoke in Arabic, a senior security official told AFP, which he said suggested that they had links over the border in Afghanistan.

“The army chief is likely to take Afghan leadership on board on this issue,” the security official said, adding that the handing over of Pakistani Taliban chief Mullah Fazlullah, who is believed to be hiding in northeastern Afghanistan, may also figure at the talks in Kabul.

Afghanistan routinely accuses Pakistan of providing shelter within its borders to the Afghan Taliban, while Pakistan accuses Afghanistan of protecting members of the Pakistani Taliban.

Analysts said the visit was intended to further cooperation against militants group along the countries’ shared border.

“The army chief is obviously interested that Tehrik-e-Taliban chief Maulana Fazlullah and his group is arrested and handed over to Pakistan or eliminated so that they do not use Afghan territory for launching attacks against Pakistan as happened in Peshawar on Tuesday,” retired general and security analyst Talat Masood told AFP.

“General Sharif wants to strengthen military-to-military and intelligence-to-intelligence level cooperation between the two countries otherwise sanctuaries in Afghanistan will be used against Pakistan,” he added.

Pakistan’s powerful army and intelligence services are widely seen as being the driving force behind the country’s defence and foreign policies.

There are plans to hold a two-minute silence at the match, and the proceeds will be donated to families of the victims.

Pakistani cricketers gather before the start of the fourth day-night international match between Pakistan and New Zealand at the Zayed International Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi. Photograph: Aamir Qureshi/AFP/Getty Images

Prime minister Nawas Sharif has vowed to push ahead with an army offensive against the Taliban in Pakitan or Tehrik-e-Taliban. The group claimed responsibility for the attack on Tuesday, claiming it was revenge for an offensive launched against it in the summer named Zarb-e-Azb.

Speaking at an all party meeting in Peshawar today Sharif said Zarb-e-Azb “is successfully moving forward and Pakistan was making efforts for peace in the region”, according to the Pakistan Radio.

It added:

The prime minister stressed that the nation is waging jihad against terrorism and this mission will not be left unaccomplished.

He recalled that the government started dialogue with militants after evolving consensus of all political parties. But the government was left with no other option but to launch military operation against terrorists due to their intransigence.

Overnight, the body of the school principal, Tahira Qazi, was found among the debris, AP reports.

Qazi was inside her office when the militants made their way into the administration building 20 meters from the auditorium. She had ran and locked herself into the bathroom but the attackers threw a grenade inside, through a vent, and killed her, according to army spokesman Major General Asim Bajwa.